in pursuit of victory
by pseudonymous.writer.blogger
Summary: They've found him. They want to know where Sherry is. And they want to know where his evidence against them is. Unfortunately, he's not giving them anything, and he has another plan in play-not himself, but his methods. The final showdown is here. Action, ShinRan, HeiShin Bromance, Heizuha, and rated T for torture. NEWSFLASH GUYS: So sorry, but this is officially on hiatus. School.
1. one

**Another Detective Conan fanfic-which I feel is ending soon (in Gosho time: oh, about five years). Rum is close, Gin is suspicious, and we get a glimpse of Shinichi behind Conan: sometime not seen in a very long time. We get two BO cases in a row. And the Mystery Girl, Mary, is also close by.**

 **My, oh, my. The fandom is exploding. (Or maybe just me.)**

 **Anyway. Here is my attempt to envision the final showdown (based on some Tumblr prompts I found, but too lazy to copy and paste them).**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

He wakes to the smell of cigarettes. The air tingles of a Marlboro scent, of a puffy smoke that is not too strong, but strong enough. With the scent comes the flow of memory, and with it, pain and panic.

" _Ai, you have to hide. Now!"_

His mind is still sharp underneath the matted blood atop his scalp, and his breathing is normal. But his reaction, he realizes, does not change a thing: he is still in the belly of the beast, in the lion's den, in the devil's room ( _A metal chair, rusted with...blood, nickel Smith and Wesson handcuffs, in a room that reeks of oil, decomposition, and rats._ ).

 _They_ 've found them. Finally, _they_ have.

( _He is aware of two people in the room, other than him: one smoking in front of him, watching him; the other pacing behind him, a heavy, hard pace, favoring the left leg as the flimsy wooden boards beneath him quiver, smoking as well-Vodka?_ )

He's surprised it's took them this long, what with Vermouth's traitorous behavior, and his involvement with the FBI and Kir and Bourbon, and his appearances as "Holmes's apprentice" or "Sleeping Kogorou's assistant". But it was time.

Time to fix his mistakes, to bring them in for good, to end this sick torture. Slowly, he opens his eyes, feeling once again the cage of a six-year-old-

Wait-his body…

"Good morning, Detective," a thick voice says, smiling behind the cigar. Chills run up and down his spine, and he swears he cringes at the sight. Sweat begins to collect on his palms, on his neck. Gin. "You should be thankful to us. We made sure you returned to your original state before we began." ( _Of course-how can they torture a six-year-old's body without encountering difficulties in keeping him alive? They have a better chance of inflicting more pain to make a man talk than a child._ )

Gin would make a brilliant detective-had he not been a murderer, a criminal, he would have thought of Gin as one. He had been able to find him and discover his identity; he still had to determine how, exactly, this was done.

He swallows down the shudder he feels at the thought of his transition from Conan to Shinichi. Who gave him these clothes ( _Dress pants, dress shirt, and no shoes._ )? What became of Conan's suit and bowtie?

"An antidote?" he asks.

"A permanent one," Vodka nods, appearing from behind him, smoking a Winston (a lighter, airy smell), "In contrast with the ones _Sherry_ made for you."

"Where is she, _Meitantei_?" Gin stands, walking over to him. "As your gift of _gratitude_ , it's only polite to give us information in return."

* * *

( _He remembers, now, the pain of the antidote before he lost consciousness inside the Porsche after they grabbed him and knocked him out, like that first time,_ _ **just**_ _like that first encounter. He remembers Ai's voice of panic and her screams of protest, and Agasa's shocked murmur in the background before he slammed the payphone down._

" _Kudo-kun?"_

" _Ai, they're onto us. You have to hide."_

" _How? What have you done?!"_

" _Ai, you have to hide. Now!"_

" _Shinichi-kun? Ai-kun, what's-"_

 _Slam goes the phone into the booth, and slam goes his heart, slamming against its cage._ )

* * *

"I'm afraid I don't know any Sherry, Gin," he spits out, gritting his teeth. ( _Keep calm. Do not let emotions cloud judgement._ ) "My bad."

His gleeful response sends the worst fear he has ever felt down into the depths of his memory, to scar him forever. He doesn't know if he'll survive this, but he knows that if he does, he will never forget this feeling of falling down a well of fifty thousand feet, and falling, and falling into a pit of darkness and fear.

"Very well. I expected it to be this way-I looked forward to it, in fact. Vodka, call Rum. You may begin."

Gin turns to leave, his long silver hair trailing wisps of smoke behind him-but his shoulders start to shake with laughter, and the beast looks back at him with those eyes that always, always strike him and chill him to the deepest part of his core. "And remember, _Meitantei_. There's no rescue for you, not anymore. There'll be no mistake this time. After all, there are only monsters here."

* * *

 **More to come soon.**


	2. two

**Oh my gosh, you guys are so awesome! Thank you so much for all the reviews (especially you, Song of Sirens-san), favorites, and follows for this little snippet of torture. (By the way, Sirens-san, unfortunately, it will not quite tie in the oneshot I wrote...at least, I don't _think_ so. XD)**

 **I'd like to point out the fact that the Conan fandom is so supportive and welcoming: just one night of having a little 800 word teaser, and I have so much love from you guys. Much love back with this longer chapter. Enjoy...**

* * *

 _Conan-kun has gone off to America...it's so quiet here, now,_ Mouri Ran observes, distracting her from her physics assignment. She sighs, glancing up from her homework. She expects another body to drop or a six year old boy to come home, excited about a mystery with the Detective Boys, or any mystery, or to help a case from "something he learned from TV".

 _It's strange, though...you'd think after all they've been through, he'd at least give her a face-to-face goodbye, but all she had was three minute phone call._

She remembers the moment she called him, after three days from not hearing from him, thinking he was at Professor Agasa's house.

* * *

" _Conan-kun? Where are you? You know better than to not tell me where you are, especially after three days!"_

" _I'm sorry, Ran-neechan…"_

" _You worried me, Conan-kun!"_

" _I know, I'm sorry...My Okaa-san came to pick me up, and I couldn't tell you until now…We're in America now."_

 _Conan-kun's voice has an inch of pain and sadness in it, mixed with the heavy breathing of someone close to tears. So does Ran's._

" _Oh...well...You could have at least told me, or texted me…"_

" _My phone battery died...I'm sorry, Ran-neechan!"_

 _She can hear him grin enthusiastically on the other end. Of course-he's with his parents now. She couldn't have expected him to stay with her forever, right?_

 _She wipes away her tears and grins more for him than for her. "It's okay, Conan-kun! You have fun with your parents in America now, okay? I'll miss you! Promise you'll call."_

" _Thank you, Ran-neechan."_

 _She can hear his audible gulp. "I'll miss you too."_

Click.

 _Ran cries before she knows she's crying, because there's that feeling again, again, like with_ _ **him**_ _, gnawing at her insides, clawing at her heart, killing her soul and her conscious-her_ detective's instinct _, as that baka would call it. The feeling like she would never see Conan-kun again._

* * *

The phone call was three days ago. Now, she was alone. Again. Without Shinichi, without Conan…

"Kazuha-chan!" she gasps, jerking towards her phone at the thought. "Did Conan-kun tell Kazuha-chan and Heiji-kun?" She quickly taps Kazuha's contact, and calls one of her best friends.

"Kazuha-chan? Hai, it's me, Ran-chan. I'm doing okay, I guess. No, not that detective geek. It's Conan-kun. Didn't he tell you, or at least, Heiji-kun? Oh. I guess he forgot, having fun with his parents and all. Yes, Conan-kun is back in America with his parents. Indefinitely, I think. Or, that is what it sounded like."

Ran hears Kazuha pass it onto her childhood friend ( _And potential boyfriend; they need to confess to each other soon_ ), and the response she hears can be heard when she jerks her phone five feet away from her ear.

"Oi, Neechan, is it true? That little shrimp's gone?" Heiji inquires desperately, making her smile at his close bond with the boy, as well as Kazuha's protests at the _ahou_ for just taking her phone.

"Yes," she says, and the lump in her throat is back again, along with the _feeling_. "Well...it was strange. He didn't even say goodbye; he just called me and told me. It's like he didn't want to call anymore."

The bickering seems to stop with Kazuha-chan snatching her phone back. "There! You got yer answer before I did, _ahou_! Ran-chan, what did he say?"

"That he'll miss me, and sorry he didn't tell me. He said thank you, as well. It sounded...final. Like we wouldn't see each other again."

Ran sighs, heaviness laden in her heart. "I'll miss him so much, Kazuha-chan."

"I know. We will, too. Neh, Heiji? Heiji? Oi, what's with you? Heiji, we'll see him again, you don't have to look so scary. Oi, that's _my_ phone, you can use your own-"

"Ran-san," Heiji says, and Ran can tell from both Kazuha's stunned silence and the missing use of the nickname _Neechan_ that he is deadly serious. "We'll come to Tokyo to keep you company. Stay safe."

The call ends with the ominous message. She cannot help but feel that wherever she goes, she will feel _that feeling_ again and again with everyone.

* * *

He hears the wind Vodka's fist creates before he feels it smash into his jaw again. He is surprised his ears still work after their interrogation technique: beat him half senseless while yelling in his ear, then beat him again.

His silence only angers them more.

Rum's fist collides with his nose, Vodka's sinks into his stomach, a foot slaps him across the face, a punch across the cheek, an upper jab, a foot that drives him and his chair to the ground.

He lets the groan escape his lips before he can control it. Blurry figures surround him in shades of black, and in his dizziness, he tells himself, _You are suffering from a mild concussion._

One of his eyes are swollen, and the other is getting close to it, and his jaw aches, and his stomach, he's afraid, has some internal bleeding; blood is beginning to foam at his mouth and his lips are split.

"He's not speaking. Do you think he's ready for Gin, yet, Rum?"

"Hmm, I think he'll need a bit more incentive. It is only natural to give him some more courtesy, given the trouble he's welcomed us with. Do unto others, yes?"

The dizziness begins to fade with black spots of pain and weariness, but it is not over. He feels, in the newfound darkness as he closes his eyes, two arms drag him from the chair after releasing him from the handcuffs, only to secure his wrists in chains from the ceiling, the height controlled by another chain to lift him up or bring him down; rusted, again, with blood, leaving him dangling five inches from above, and strip him of his shirt.

He knows they can hear his nervous gulp as Rum walks behind him, pacing as if surveying his back muscles and his strained shoulders. Vodka rolls up his sleeves, and retrieves something from behind him.

Perspiration chills him through the bone, on the back of his neck, across his bangs, on his palms. He thought he could face them alone-this way, the others would be safe, and in due time, in due time, Hattori would get the evidence needed ( _the one he stored away...the one no one but him knows about, but Hattori will find it-he left the appropriate clues, behind anyway_ ) to put them away. But fear attacks him and suffocates him, hanging from the ceiling of a dark green-tinted warehouse.

He hears the rushing water behind him, and he knows what they're preparing: waterboarding. A common tactic among the CIA; why would they be using it? Did Kir teach them a few things, or are they doing things a different way?

He takes a deep breath-the best course of action when being waterboarded is not to panic. _Usually, though, the victim is lain on a board and restrained horizontally; how would they-_

He gets the answer to his question: Rum is very strong. Rum drops the wet rag on him, and wastes no time, roughly pulling it down, dragging Shinichi to a 45 degree angle to the ground, straining his shoulder muscles, his breath, and his whole body. He struggles underneath, protesting under the towel, his uncomfortable stretch muffled by the wet rag. _Don't panic, you baka. Don't panic._

"Where is Sherry?" Vodka asks, and he receives no polite answer. Shinichi can hear him smile.

The water pours down.

* * *

 **We don't know whether Rum is a man or a woman (my guess is woman), so I didn't put any pronouns that indicated either for Rum. I'm sure there are very strong women in the world you can hold Shinichi down as Rum did. But, eh, take it and imagine it however you like.**

 **Next chapter: a certain dark-skinned detective and his childhood lov-*cough* *cough* I mean friend-comes to the scene...**


	3. three

**Hey, guys! So sorry this came extremely late. I had AP testing to prepare for and final exams, but now it's over! So here is the next chapter...**

 **But I'm afraid I won't be updating that much in the time being. NCIS just had one of the worst and best finales ever, and being an avid Tiva shipper, the episode broke my heart. Literally. Urgh.**

 **Anyway, I have to find someway of splitting my time between the two fandoms because I have so many ideas for Tiva drabbles and I'm still deciding how this one ends. Sorry!**

 **Here you go:**

* * *

Heiji Hattori doesn't worry. It's not something he does. Never.

( _Kazuha might be in danger if he brings her along to Tokyo-but then again, Neechan is, and he is still unsure of his plan to keep both of them, that other redhead kid, and the Professor alive. Kudo…_ )

She's asleep next to him on the plane-she rushed out to Tokyo with him, with a story to their parents that they are ( _again_ ) going to visit Mouri-san in Tokyo. Which is the truth-and yet not the truth.

( _Who knows where_ _ **they**_ ' _re keeping Kudo? Or what they're doing with him...They might be in London, or America by now…_ )

He swears under his breath, and takes a vow to not stop looking for his best friend.

( _He suspects there is a clue, though. If it's Kudo, there is always, always a clue and only one truth lurking in the corners of doubt._ )

* * *

 _What is so important and suspicious about Conan-kun's return to America? Is it an old case he stumbled across, or is Heiji-kun just worried, or...does this have something to do with...Shinichi?_

"Mouri-san!"

Ran jerks her head away from the window. "Hai!"

"Calculate the molar mass of the compound used in this problem."

"Hai…"

Sonoko snickers behind her and whispers something about her husband to the others. They all grin knowingly. The distraction only heightens her worry for both Conan-kun and Shinichi.

She walks home from school alone, thinking of him; walking past memories and memories of Shinichi and his ego, long before the day he disappeared and reappeared and had severe heart problems that make him run away from her. Not good…

When was his last phone call? When did they last meet? London?

Her lips start to quiver from worry and pain. _What is he doing? Why is every case more important than himself...than being with his friends…_

"Ran-chan!"

Ran looks up at the open door of the apartment, surprised. Her worried frown turns into a smile. "Kazuha-chan! You're here already!"

She smiles, nodding, then turning around to glare at the dark-skinned teenage detective behind her, deep in thought. "This _ahou_ pretty much jumped on a plane's wing to get here." Kazuha's eyebrows furrow in concern. "Heiji? What's wrong?"

Heiji-kun's chin is in his hand and his cap is on the right way. There is a mystery, here in Tokyo.

" _Masaka_?" Ran blurts out nervously. "Is-"

Heiji-kun shifts toward her and puts his hand on her mouth, silencing her sentence. "Nothing, Neechan!" he yells in the living room. "I was just craving some to-die-for ramen in Tokyo. Shall we go?"

"H-hai," Ran mutters after he removes his hand and looks at her pointedly. Kazuha and her are at a point of complete trust in Heiji. They have no other choice, she notices, as Heiji leads the way out of the Mouri Detective Agency.

* * *

When they pass by Shinichi's house, Ran is already shuddering with fear. Heiji had spent the walk in silence, and the girls did not dare to interrupt his solemn expression.

But they don't stop there-instead, they go a house further, and Heiji-kun rings the doorbell.

"Agasa-hakase's house? Heiji-kun, please, tell me what's going on."

She has that feeling again- _that_ feeling. Conan-kun, Shinichi...she's had her suspicions before, only to be proven wrong by elaborate measures. She knows she is correct with Heiji's actions. She didn't spent 16 years with a mystery otaku for nothing-she has an instinct, and a method of solving her own puzzles: Edogawa Conan. And she's solved hers, many times.

"There's something bad. It's not good. Kudo…" He takes his hat off to run his fingers through his hair.

Professor Agasa opens the door a crack, a fat man with a white mustache that masks his kindness to the Mouris and the Kudos, and to the Detective Boys. "Ah, Ran-kun, Heiji-kun, Toyama-san. What brings you here?"

"It's about Kudo, Hakase," Heiji says. " _ **They**_ 've found him."

Agasa's eyes widen by seven centimeters. "So sorry, Heiji-kun, I have no idea what you're talking about."

The door begins to close, but Heiji sticks his hand out to slam it wide open to reveal a small, brown-haired girl pointing a small Makarov pistol at the door. "Neesan. It's me."

Haibara Ai, seven-year-old, with a pistol. Ran and Kazuha jump back in fear.

"How are we supposed to know that?" Ai-chan's voice is cold.

Heiji grimaces. "I...when the professor and Kudo locked you in here, that night he went after one of them, I was the one who made sure you could get out. So you could find him."

Haibara's usually calm face flinches for a moment with guilt and memory. "I see." She nods at the professor.

"Come in, quickly."

They gather in and sit on the couch as the atmosphere stills and cools with tension and mystery.

 _Could it be…? Is Ai-chan also a teenager?_

Silently, Ran counts back to the times she has noticed how mature sounding Ai is compared to the rest of the Detective Boys, and how she was added onto the group after meeting with Conan-kun.

"Tell us everything," Professor Agasa says, sitting down in front of them with Haibara Ai, staring blankly in front of her.

"No," Ran says before thinking, the protest slipping out before she knows it. There is no stopping her now, not with Conan- _Shinichi_ in danger. "Tell _us_ everything first." Beside her, she can feel Kazuha nod in affirmation.

There is a heavy sigh that escapes from Heiji, and when he takes his cap off, he no longer looks 16, but older, wiser, and most of all, distressed. "Kudo-"

"No!"

All eyes turn to Haibara Ai, the little girl, too mature, mysterious, and dark for a seven-year-old.

"No," she raises her eyes, empty and glass-like, to Heiji. "Do you really think he would want them to know, now? Especially now? I know why he didn't want to tell _me_ -if not me, then do you think he would want _them_ to know?"

Her chuckle fills the air darkly, sending chills down Ran's spine. "That idiot. That lovesick idiot. That justice-seeking _baka_. If _they_ have him, then we have no hope. _They_...God knows what _they_ 're doing to him…"

"Ai-kun, let's not scare the guests away," Professor Agasa warns. "But you are right. Telling them is questionable."

"No," Ran says, anger coursing through her veins. That _baka_ , idiot, mystery geek. Of course he would get himself in danger...Of course he had to run off by himself that day in Tropical Land...Of course, of course, of course. "I would rather hear the ugly truth than another lie. I have faced lie after lie after lie and I have dealt with it. And I _know_."

She raises her eyes at the three people who know the truth to emphasize that she has found out his secret. "I _know_ that Conan-kun...and Shinichi…"

"Ran-san," Heiji says, eyes dark. "How long have you known?"

There is a high pitched groan of exasperation that escapes the youngest-looking girl in the room. "He _told_ you? That idiot...Lovesick, stupid, irrational...And now the one person who would worry for him the most, the one person who he doesn't want going after him and his stupid plans-"

"I found out. He didn't tell me. I found out." She lets Ai's stunned, emotional face absorb the truth. "It wasn't hard, considering they look identical, stumble over dead bodies all the time, and Heiji-kun is constantly calling him Kudo."

"Kudo-kun and Conan-kun...are the same person?" Kazuha gasps.

"Let's focus on the situation at hand, shall we?" orders a voice that comes from the top of the stairs.

"Subaru-san!" Ran half-yells. "Don't tell me you heard-"

"Yes. I've deduced it a while ago, don't worry."

Ai visibly hardens with uncomfortableness. "I suppose _you_ have a plan, Subaru-san?" she questions harshly.

"I suggest we make one, Ai-kun," he replies warmly.

She replies with a scoff, turning her nose up and away from him.

"Who are you, again?" Heiji questions suspiciously, dumbstruck.

"Just know we're on the same side, Hattori-kun."

They shared eye contact for a few seconds, then Heiji nodded. _If Kudo trusts him, then so do I._

"Alright. Knowing Kudo, he would have left us something, anything, in case this happened. Let's start looking."

* * *

A hard punch shakes him out of unconsciousness. There is a faint noise, a faint ringing in his ears, and his eyes blink the darkness of pain away. His body is marked by a myriad of dark purple and yellow, and his lungs have taken a toll from the waterboarding.

He is still in the same position they left him in when he passed out: arms strained above him

His eyes start to focus, and his heart drops at the black hat atop silver hair.

"Gin," he says involuntarily. Something pulses beneath his head, and he sees flashes…

 _His parents, waking up and smiling to each other as he reads underneath his father's desk._

 _Hattori's hat, and his childish grin when he pushes it onto Shinichi's head._

 _Ai's shocked face when he pushed her out of the bus._

 _And Ran. Smiling. Skipping down the sidewalk, eight years old. Winning her first karate tournament. Holding his hand at Tropical Land, on the ride._

It causes such a deep, throbbing pain that he groans and squints his eyes, fighting against the agonizing weariness.

"What have you…"

Words slip from his mouth while his nemesis grins. _Stop talking, you idiot!_ But his mouth seems to have a mind of its own.

"What have you done to me?"

"A wonderful concoction. Sodium pentothal."

"Truth serum," Shinichi remembers. The professor had once told him about it, explaining its chemistry. Another qualm of pain waves through him, and he shudders into its embrace. "I know...how to resist this, you know."

Gin laughs. "I'm sure you do, _Meitantei_. That's why you're the most talkative you've been since you arrived."

Gin calls off the bluff in a flash. He isn't surprised-but he knows he can resist as much as he can.

"Where is Sherry?" Gin asks, circling around him like a vulture.

Pain washes through him, drowning him in his resistance. "She….A-"

He bites his tongue and suppresses her name, blood flowing out of his mouth. "Go to hell. She's probably there, too."

A kick to the stomach, an upper jab to the chin. He grits his teeth in pain, clenching the chains he's held up by to stop himself from saying the truth that he lives for.

"Who else knows you're Kudo Shinichi?"

 _Hattori, his hat, his smile_. _The professor, smoke clouding his white hair from his latest invention. His father, grinning at his mother about editors._

 _No._

"No!" he yells out anything, _anything_ to keep them safe. "No, no one! No one!"

The pain is excruciating. It digs into his side, into his heart, sets fire to his veins. He closes his eyes, groans and yells and clenches the chains, lets it dig into his fingers, because he _cannot let_ _ **them**_ kill the ones he loves, the ones who saved him from insanity.

He couldn't stay a five-year-old and remain Kudo Shinichi without them. After everything they sacrificed for him...it's time to repay the favor. This pain is worth keeping them safe.

He doesn't know when it stops, but he doesn't stop screaming until it does. It's then he loses consciousness and embraces the darkness and its safety.

* * *

 **I don't know which is worse, Shinichi's pain, or my pain at watching that NCIS finale.**


End file.
